The Runt At the End

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.
There were twelve more of them before this part.

In any series of ostensibly-similar individuals, the last one will always be smaller than (or otherwise different from) the rest, and will often cause more trouble than the others. Just to drive the point home, they may have an Odd Name Out.

When the Youngest Child Wins, the child is often The Runt At the End, and may also be The Fool.

Be careful, though, because sometimes The Runt At the End turns out to be a Pint-Sized Powerhouse.

Compare Arson, Murder, and Jaywalking.

Examples of The Runt At the End include:

Anime and Manga

  • Weird anime example: Team Sexy Madam (Lovely Madam in the English translation) from Magical Project S was a team of adult women (housewives and office ladies) press-ganged by the villain, Ramia, to defeat Pretty Sammy with Sexy Power. Except for the sixth and final member, who was very small—and was later shown to be a popular junior high school girl.
  • In an episode of Pokémon, a Gliscor and its group of Gligar followers had one of these. Ash ended up catching it. Paul, meanwhile, caught the leader.
    • And for human characters, Misty, whose sisters use this trope to tease her endlessly, to her annoyance.
  • Technically speaking, The Major. Of all the members of Millenium (most of whom are statuesque vampires, except for the Captain, who is a werewolf and the most statuesque of all), he stands out for being short and fat, wearing thick spectacles, not wearing a military uniform, and displaying no superhuman abilities. This is in stark contrast to his status as Millenium's beloved leader, who is extremely charismatic, and quite a skilled strategist. He's also a cyborg. Well, was a cyborg. He's kinda just a robot now...
  • Samurai 7, as seen below in the Seven Samurai example below, has Katsushiro, the Wide-Eyed Idealist and physically smallest character.

Comic Books

  • In Fables, Bigby used to be the runt of his litter, and his name was even given by his brothers as mocking of his tiny size. Lately they abandoned him, but Bigby got bigger, and bigger, and bigger, until he became the Big Badass Wolf of legend.
  • Joe Dalton in Lucky Luke. He tries his best to act the leader, but even when that works, he just ends up the Runt At The Front instead.

Film

  • Explicitly invoked as Homage by Steven Spielberg in Close Encounters of the Third Kind, with the little red light that trails behind the larger, more physical-looking UFOs—and causes more trouble and fuss.
  • This trope makes an appearance in the original 1947 version of Miracle on 34th Street: At the climactic moment of the film, a parade of burly bailiffs stream into the courtroom each toting two large bags of mail; the parade ends with a smaller bailiff carrying a single bag.
  • Shows up in, of all things, The Magnificent Seven—with Chico, the inexperienced young gun, tagging along behind the other more experienced gunslingers on the ride to the Mexican village.
  • This follows from Seven Samurai, with Katsuhiro tagging along with the much older samurai. Of course, Kikuchiyo is the real odd one out of that group.
  • Every time the stampeding animals go by in Jumanji, a rhino slowly trots after them as it huffs and puffs for air.
  • In a brilliantly timed and executed visual gag in The Three Stooges' short "Calling All Curs," the boys are forced to beat a hasty retreat when the dinner bell sounds at their dog hospital and a massive clusterfuck of pooches stampedes down the hall.....followed after a brief delay by one lone scrawny little pipsqueak of a mutt.
  • The entire reason the Home Alone movies exist is because the main characters are this.
  • Electra Glide in Blue where the lead character, a motorcycle cop, is almost a foot shorter than his fellow officers. It's underlined in the opening sequence.
  • In The Sound of Music, one of the children asks Uncle Max if they're really going to sing in front of a whole lot of people tonight and he says they are and reads their names from the program, ending with Gretel. She asks why she's always last and Max replies "Because you are the most important."
  • Snot Rod from Cars appears to lag behind the other Delinquent Road Hazards, the only time he ever catches up is whenever he sneezes. Snot Rod is the only Road Hazard not to be based on a Japanese tuner car (he is based on an American drag racer instead), the only Road Hazard to be colored with warm colors (he is colored orange, while everyone else is colored purple, green, or blue), and according to his toy bio, he is the youngest member of his quartet.
  • This is almost a signature trope for the works of Walt Disney:
    • Dopey from Snow White and The Seven Dwarfs is perhaps the best-known Disney example.
      • Snow White also has a turtle who keeps lagging behind the other animals. By the time it catches up, the others are already on their way out.
    • Michael from Peter Pan.
      • The small pirate in the green coat, also from Peter Pan.
    • Fantasia has several:
      • In the Chinese Dance part of the "Nutcracker Suite", performed by dancing mushrooms. The tiniest one (called "Hop Low" by the animators) has trouble keeping in step with the rest.
      • Another Fantasia instance is the little black Pegasus foal in the Mt. Olympus section, who likewise can't keep up and generally screws up ... until all the others are frolicking in a rainbow, when the black one comes fluttering down for a perfect landing, the soul of decorum.
    • The last bird to take his seat in the Adventures In Music cartoons, "Melody" and "Toot, Whistle, Plunk, and Boom". The character is also a Vocal Dissonance, as he's a bass, and the rest of the characters are sopranos and tenors.
    • Hathi Jr. from The Jungle Book
    • Ed the hyena in The Lion King.
    • Thalia, the short, plump muse in Disney's Hercules.

Literature

  • In Finland, the last person of a line who is smaller than the others is referred to as "the tip of the tail" after a scene in the country's national novel Seven Brothers, where the titular siblings are mocked in a song which ends by calling the youngest brother Eero, who's always lagging behind, the tip of their tail.
    • Eero is also the smartest of the lot, though his quick tongue often puts him at odds with his brothers.
  • From Discworld, the City Watch has Nobby Nobbs, who is shorter than most dwarves, unsavory and ugly enough that he has a signed statement from Lord Vetinari confirming that he's human.
    • And Vetinari himself once asked if they were forged!
  • In The Bible, King David was significantly smaller and less important-looking than his brothers.
  • In Charlotte's Web, Wilbur (the pig) is literally this trope. He is saved by Fern, who begs her father not to kill him because he is smaller than the other pigs.
  • The title character in Madeline.
  • In Gene Stratton Porter's A Daughter of the Lands, the mother singles out Kate to not go to school because she's the youngest.

"The difference is that I am past sixty now. I was stout as an ox when Mary wanted to go to school. It is your duty and your job to stay here and do this work."
 "To pay for having been born last? Not a bit more than if I had been born first. Any girl in the family owes you as much for life as I do; it is up to the others to pay back in service, after they are of age, if it is to me. I have done my share.

Live-Action TV

  • Corporal Jones in Dad's Army is smaller, stands at the end when the troops fall in, and always comes to attention half a second behind everyone else.

Newspaper Comics

  • Orson in U.S. Acres is considered the runt of the litter.

Theatre

  • The Ballets Trockadero de Monte Carlo, a group of male ballerinas (yes, you read that right) demonstrate the trope nicely in this pas de quatre from Swan Lake.
  • In Of Thee I Sing, when the Presidential baby is about to be born, the White House receives baby carriages from many world countries (France, of course, is not one of them). These are presented in a long line, and the last is a wee one from Scotland.

Video Games

  • While they're all the same size, the cut scenes in Wario Land II commonly featured one Spear Goom who would run into the others, causing them to flip around and glare at him before continuing on.
  • Similarly, whenever a mob of Shy Guys runs around in Paper Mario, there is always a straggler who manages to trip before catching up.
  • The opening sequence of Super Mario Bros. 3 also does this—a group of koopas goes past, then one lone Koopa Troopa follows at twice the speed, trying to catch up...
  • In Mario & Luigi: Bowser's Inside Story, Bowser's ultimate attack, the Broggy Bonker, can, with good timing, result in a gang of Blitties running by to mob the enemy. There is of course a brief pause between the time the penultimate Blitty runs offscreen and the time the last one appears.
  • In The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess, a group of cowardly castle guards run away from having to help someone across a certain very dangerous field (so Link has to do it) and the pint-sized, plump one at the end is the last to run away. Hilarity and annoyance ensues.
  • There's a group of ogres that patrol across the Badlands in World of Warcraft. They walk in a line and the last one is about one third the size of the others.
    • And then, there's Mazzranache, the evil pink tallstrider of Mulgore. As of Cataclysm, she's followed by a new clutch of babies. The last in line is not only a runt, but skitters around erratically.
    • Don't forget Beauty, the core hound boss in Blackwing with her litter of pups Lucky, Spot, Buster.. and Runty. Runty stays in the back during the fight and hides and is a non issue through the fight, yet he is still targetable and even killable. If you do, though, prepare for a world of pain from his mother who gains a 200% damage buff when the little guy is killed.
  • Although all members the bad guy caveman tribe in the caveman section of Live a Live are Palette Swaps, there's the one guy who keeps getting left behind, assigned the difficult tasks and falling into pits while the others move on.
    • Also happens in the opening segment of the same chapter, where the hero is chased by a stampede of mammoths, followed by one tiny one.
  • In Final Fantasy VII, the mini game Mog House (the least likely candidate for being Sidetracked by the Gold Saucer) has as its ending a long line of little baby Mogs ("Moogles" in every other FF) ending in a tiny little one who trips. It's so cute it Tastes Like Diabetes.
  • Team Fortress 2: The Scout is even called "the runt of the litter" in his official wiki biography.

Web Comics

  • This Achewood strip.
  • In WCI High, one teenage superhero vs. one football team doesn't end well.
  • Seen in Skin Horse during this week (next-to-last strip).
  • Among the dev'esses of the Sarghress clan in Drowtales, you wouldn't be blamed for thinking that Sang and her son Kor'maril Niz'zre are this trope given that the other characters (including the token human) tower over them, but Kor'maril is one of the highest ranking Sarghress and a certified Badass in his own right, while Sang is described by the author as "small and mean" and an old friend of Quain'tana. Long story short, in the drow world, The Runt At the End tends to be a Pint-Sized Powerhouse if they have managed to survive that long.

Web Original

Web Video

  • This video. Watch the small monk second from the right (okay, almost at the end) whenever his group lifts their signs up high.

Western Animation

  • The New Adventures of Winnie the Pooh had an episode about questing for the Land of Milk and Honey, featuring a herd of heffalumps thundering past, followed by a very small heffalump chanting "The land of milk and honey! The land of milk and honey!"
  • Benny in Top Cat.
  • A Looney Tunes short which parodied Disney's Fantasia fused this with an inversion of "The Ugly Duckling": a black duckling attached itself to a family of swans, adding a discordant visual and auditory note to their graceful progress.
  • Even Scooby-Doo has the gang of teenagers (and the dog)... plus Scrappy Doo, who always wanted to fight the ghosts.
  • The animated adaptation of The Phantom Tollbooth did this with King Azaz's senior advisers.
  • A particularly early episode of The Fairly OddParents had Timmy wishing for "a ton" of clones of himself in order to deal with all the chores imposed on him by Vicky. Cosmo and Wanda do the math and figure out that it adds up to exactly "forty-four and a half Timmies". After Timmy gives the orders to his clones, they all march out of the room grunting like soldiers. Right after the 44th Timmy? A half-sized clone with a high-pitched voice.
  • MGM and Warner Brothers both use this trope in a number of animated shorts with animals ranging from hounds to crocodiles. The runt usually says "I've been sick."
  • One episode of The Simpsons centers around the nuclear plant's workers' union. Every time they hold a vote, everyone votes Aye, except for one nebbish little voice that chimes in with "Nay". Eventually Homer asks "Who keeps saying that?" Cut to a beefy blond guy and The Runt At the End. The runt points at the beefy guy and says (in that same voice) "It was him! Let's get him, fellas!" As the other workers pound the guy into pudding, the runt chuckles.

Marge: Maybe we should go inside.
Homer: But Marge, that little guy hasn't done anything yet. Look at him! He's gonna do something and you know it's gonna be good.
(Door closes behind Homer)
Little Japanese Mobster: Hiiiiya!
(Thud)
Homer: Aww.

    • Another episode had Mr Burns releasing the hounds, where the usual procession of vicious guard dogs is followed by the elderly and obese "Crippler", who has apparently been around since the Sixties.
  • In the classic Bugs Bunny cartoon Little Red Riding Rabbit, the Big Bad Wolf discovers several other wolves in Grandma's bed, and hustles them out. He starts to climb into the bed, only to have a smaller wolf (who was under the pillow!) scamper out after the others. The gag was repeated in the Sylvester cartoon "Little Red Rodent Hood", with cats instead of wolves.

Sylvester: Everybody wants to get into the act!

  • The Russian animated version of Treasure Island had the runty pirate at the end who kept having to catch up to the rest.
  • The creeping foot fungus in Courage the Cowardly Dog has the Big Toe (mob boss), 3 henchmen, and one inept henchman as the pinky-toe.
  • In the Wile E Coyote and The Road Runner cartoon "Ready, Set, Zoom!", when the Coyote dons an Acme Female Roadrunner Costume and is chased not by the Roadrunner but by many other hungry coyotes, the last coyote is noticeably smaller than the others.
  • Tom had a similar experience in Tom and Jerry cartoon "The Brothers Carry Mouse Off". Tom dressed himself as a female mouse to catch Jerry and ended up chased by other cats, the last one of them quite small.
  • Happens twice on Phineas and Ferb when Doofenshmirtz decides to clone himself and in another episode when he clones Perry. The botched version of himself doesn't seem to understand the situation and believes Perry to be a bunny. When one of the Perry clones come out awkwardly Doofenshmirtz feels very affectionate towards the poor creature, trying to teach it to use words instead of hitting people (even though the rest of the clones are an army).
  • The Western episode of Tiny Toon Adventures had the Coyote Gang, which comprised Wile E., a couple of Dumb Muscle coyotes, and a The Runt At the End who looked like a Palette Swap of Calamity.
  • In an episode of My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic, an Adventurer Archaeologist named Daring Do is running through the jungle, pursued by several predators. Including a tiger, a panther, a cheetah, a lynx...and an adorable little house cat.
    • This is mirrored later in the episode when Rainbow Dash tries to break into the hospital to finish reading the book. Dash runs afoul of two battleaxe nurses, an angry doctor...and an adorable little trainee filly.
  • In Ben 10: Alien Force episode "Save The Last Dance" when Ben lays eggs as Big Chill, a runt was hatched, and when it was uncertain Big Chill had to prod it to follow its siblings to the stars.

Other Media

Kevin: Hehe. Hey, look at that little eager guy in the back there.
Bill: *In a high, nasally voice* I want to help too, sir!

  • The little ant who's always stopping to do things in the song "The Ants Go Marching One by One".
  • Eight in the bed and the little one said, roll over, roll over. Until everybody but the little one fell out.
  • And this little piggy went "wee wee wee wee" alllll the way home. Why? Who knows?
  • Lil Orphan Orange (a parody of Little Orphan Annie) one of the mascots of Otter Pops, is the physically smallest character, which used to be especially apparent when all the characters were printed on the sides of the popsicles.

Real Life

  • Pluto used to be the runt at the end of the Solar System until it was demoted to "Dwarf Planet" status, although that decision may be reversed.
    • Inverted with Mercury, however, now the Solar System's smallest planet again, it is also the planet closest to the Sun. Played straight with Neptune, the smallest and furthest of the gas giant planets.
    • Subverted with Ceres, the smallest dwarf planet, which is located within the Asteroid Belt.
  • The vowels A, E, I, O, U, and sometimes Y.
  • In the famous Iwo Jima flag raising picture, the man farthest to the left is too short to help the others lift it.
  • Piglets always nurse at the same teat, and the farther down the teat the less milk it gets, resulting in the piglet on the end being the smallest.
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